Weekend arts picks: March 24-25

A scene from Nice Work if You Can Get It, at Broward Stage Door. (Photo by George Wentzler)

Theater: Broward Stage Door Theatre, which moves from Margate to its new permanent home in Lauderhill this August, is an erratic producer of musicals. But like the girl with a curl in the middle of her forehead, when the company is good, it is very, very good. As it is with its current mainstage show, Nice Work if You Can Get It, another Gershwin jukebox musical in the style of Crazy For You. T.J. Lamando plays the obligatory rich ne’er-do-well engaged to the wrong woman and Rebecca Tucker is the comely bootlegger who is a much better match for him. Both sing well and have considerable chemistry together. Clayton Phillips directs the production snappily and Danny Durr’s choreography is very inventive. Continuing through April 15. Call 954-344-7765 for tickets.

Claire Foy in Unsane. (Photo by Bleecker Street Media)

Film: Fortunately, director Steven Soderbergh did not take his declaration that he was going to stop making films very seriously, because he not only cranked out Logan Lucky last year, but now offers up a suspenseful little item called Unsane starring Claire Foy of The Crown as a decidedly unregal financial analyst who visits a therapist, signs some standard-looking release forms and finds she has agreed to be institutionalized in a cuckoo’s nest of a mental hospital. But is it a scam to gain her health insurance money or is she truly nuts? And doesn’t that orderly look a lot like the guy who was stalking her hundreds of miles away in her hometown? Soderbergh is a master storyteller who knows how to succeed without resorting to special effects, except one – Unsane was shot entirely on an iPhone. It opens this weekend at area theaters.

Alastair Willis. (Photo by Todd Rosenberg)

Music: The Symphonia Boca Raton, barely rested after its service as house band for the Festival of the Arts Boca a couple weeks ago, returns to its regular concert series on Sunday afternoon at the Roberts Theater with music of Vienna, as presented by guest conductor Alastair Willis of the Illinois Symphony. There are a bunch of favorites such as the Blue Danube waltzes of Johann Strauss II and the Haffner Symphony of Mozart, as well as a rarity, the Duett-Concertino of Richard Strauss, with clarinetist Richard Hancock and bassoonist Gabriel Beavers as soloists. And then on Tuesday, the Symphonia presents a shorter version (minus the concertino) of the same concert at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach, but this time with stories and visuals that help explain the Austrian capital in the 18th and 19th centuries. Afterward, you can enjoy prosecco and Viennese pastry if you’re so inclined (for an extra $10 above the $39 ticket fee). If this is done well, it could make for a fine history lesson that will give this familiar music some welcome context. Call 243-7922, ext. 1, for more information and tickets for the Delray concert; for the Symphonia in general, call 866-687-4201 or visit thesymphonia.org.